vicky polin The Return of the Blood Libel — The Woman Who Accused Her Own People”

In May 1989, a woman appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show under the name Rachel. Her face was blurred, her voice altered. She claimed that her Jewish family in Chicago had for generations practiced satanic rituals — including, she said, the sacrifice of infants. What sounded like a personal testimony of trauma soon became one of the most disturbing echoes of a medieval nightmare — the Blood Libel, the ancient accusation that Jews murdered Christian children for ritual purposes. The story ignited national panic. Rabbis, journalists, and psychologists denounced it as a dangerous revival of antisemitic mythology. Yet the episode disappeared from television archives, buried under the waves of the Satanic Panic era — until her name re‑emerged decades later: Vicki Polin. Now known as a sexual‑violence activist, a blogger for The Times of Israel, and allegedly the cousin of the late hostage Hersh Goldberg‑Polin, she became once again a figure shrouded in mystery and controversy. From the talk‑shows of Reagan’s America to the frontlines of post‑October 7 Israel, her story reveals a haunting continuity: how myths of ritual blood, innocence, and guilt survive the centuries — transforming from medieval pulpits to modern screens. Between faith, trauma, and collective memory, this investigation asks one forbidden question: What if the Blood Libel never truly died — it merely changed its face?